Perm-36. Reflexion 2016

3 former political prisoners: the worker Viktor Peskov; the literary scholar Mikhail Meylakh; the human rights activist Sergei Kovalev, each recall the story of their arrest and imprisonment in "Perm-36" prison camp. Here in 1996 Russia's only museum of the history of political repression was opened at the initiative of historian Victor Shmyrov. Since 2005 in late July an international civic forum "Pilorama" has been held there to enlighten society: discussions, concerts, tours, film showings are held. Participants (democrats, liberals, communists or simply tourists) are housed in tents in the field opposite the museum. The former dissidents return to the camp (now a museum) to participate in the "Pilorama" Forum, a campsite reflecting, mirror-like, Russian society haunted by phantom pains after the fall of the Soviet Union. Red-brown activists zealously rail against the existence of the museum and the forum. They start to gain attention in society and the government. Dark clouds gather.—Sergei Kachkin